Chapter 2

My name is Alice. I am the daughter of the Pure-Blood Vampire King, Sinhel, and the Hybrid-Vampire Queen, Lokui. 

I was born with Fragile Bloodline Syndrome that requires regular treatment with compatible blood donors.

Vera just was a Lesser Vampire hired specifically for her matching blood to keep me alive. She was my walking blood bag.

But somewhere along the line, my father’s gaze shifted from my sickbed to her neck.

I remember the exact moment it happened. I was convulsing, my veins burning black, waiting for the weekly transfusion. Vera sat beside me, but before the needle even pierced her skin, she swayed. "I feel faint, my Lord," she whimpered, clutching her chest.

My father didn't hesitate. He ripped the transfusion tube right out of my arm. I gasped, choking on my own failing breath, but he wasn't looking at me. He swept Vera into his arms.

"The treatment is suspended," he announced coldly. "I won't have Vera traumatized." That night, he formally declared his love for her.

Without the royal family's vast resources to treat my cursed bloodline, I wouldn't last a month outside the castle walls.

For my sake, my mother, Lokui, swallowed the humiliation and accepted his betrayal with a terrifying calm. She simply smiled at him, played the perfect, understanding Covenant partner, and cleaned up every single scandal he caused.

But every time she buried a rumor, she quietly demanded a block of royal territory or a vault of resources transferred entirely into my name.

Sinhel paid the guilt tax without a second thought, too eager to get back to Vera's bed.

Then came the day Vera walked into the Grand Hall rubbing a slightly swollen belly.

"A Pure-Blood heir," Vera announced, her chin held high as my father beamed like a proud fool beside her.

I looked at my mother. For the first time, her mask of elegant indifference cracked.

A new heir would threaten my position, my resources, and my very survival after she was gone.

From that day on, my mother locked herself in her chambers. She began forging Memory Shards.

Every night, I listened to her muffled screams. Extracting raw memories and emotions to solidify them into crystal was excruciating, especially with the dark, corrosive Blood Corruption devouring her organs.

She was literally bleeding out her soul, packing her agony into glowing stones.

“After I pass away, on the day when your father misses me the most, please help him find this Memory Crystal.”

Three days later, the real nightmare began.

My mother’s pain spiked. She needed her high-grade suppression elixirs immediately.

I rushed to the castle gates. Outside, a massive, unnatural magical blizzard tore through the territory. I wrapped myself in a heavy cloak and marched into the freezing storm to reach the Royal Apothecary in the inner city.

The wind sliced through my fragile skin like glass. By the time I crashed through the apothecary's door, my knees were bruised, my fingers were frostbitten, and I was shivering so violently I could barely speak.

I slammed my royal token on the counter. "I need three vials of Nightshade Suppression Elixir. Now."

The apothecary swiped the token over the crystal register. It buzzed a harsh red. He looked at me with pity. "Princess Alice… your payment authority. It’s been frozen. All of Lady Lokui’s accounts are locked."

"By whose order?" I demanded, my voice shaking.

The communication crystal on the counter suddenly flared to life. Vera’s smug, sickeningly sweet voice echoed through the empty shop.

"By the Royal Decree, little Alice," Vera chimed in. She must have had a monitoring spell on our accounts. "Your father thought your mother needed a lesson. If she wants to fake a terminal illness to ruin our weekend, she can do it without draining the royal treasury for fake medicine."

I gripped the counter, my knuckles turning white. "Lift the freeze. She is dying!"

"Oh, stop being so dramatic," Vera laughed. "Look outside, Alice. Do you like the snow? I told Sinhel I missed the winter of my hometown. He drained a tenth of his core magic just to blanket the entire capital in snow for me."

My stomach churned. He used his immense, reality-bending magic to make it snow for his mistress, while his sick, freezing daughter was begging for her mother's medicine in the storm.

"Tell that manipulative mother of yours to stop her little show," Vera sneered. "Sinhel won't be coming to check on her."

The connection severed.

I reached into my boots, pulling out a handful of rare, high-grade gems I had smuggled out of my own private vault. I slammed them onto the counter, grabbed the elixirs, and ran back into the storm.

I pushed the heavy doors open and found my mother collapsed on the floor, surrounded by puddles of black blood.

"Mom!" I uncorked the vial and practically forced the glowing liquid down her throat.

When her eyes fluttered open, they immediately zeroed in on my bruised, frostbitten face and my bleeding hands.

She reached up, her trembling fingers skimming the nasty purple bruise on my cheek.

She picked up her communication crystal and dialed the Royal Enchanter.

"Change the plan," my mother’s voice was as sharp as a blade. "He is far more ruthless than I anticipated. Accelerate the curse's spread."

She cut the connection and stood up. She walked over to the grand fireplace and grabbed the most sacred object in the room: the ornate golden box holding all their Soul Pact tokens. Love letters, matching Covenant rings, intertwined locks of hair.

Without a blink, she hurled the entire box into the blazing flames.

"Mom, what are you doing?" I gasped.

"Erasing myself," she said, watching the gold melt and the paper turn to ash. "When I am gone, there will be nothing left of me for him to mourn. Only the memory of how he killed me." She turned to me, gripping my shoulders tight. "You will be my only legacy, Alice."

Before I could process her words, the chamber door flew open.

The Castle Guard Captain rushed in. "My Lady! Forgive the intrusion, but you need to see this."

He held up a projection crystal. "Lord Sinhel and Vera were spotted exiting the High Council’s private fertility clinic. Vera’s pure-blood pregnancy is fully public now. The conservative clans are in an absolute uproar. They are demanding answers about the purity of the royal line."

The Captain swallowed hard, looking at the floor. "The Council Elders just sent an emergency raven. They demand that you, as the Covenant Wife, record a public optical-illusion statement immediately. They want you downplay the scandal, defend Lord Sinhel’s honor, and publicly bless Vera’s child to stabilize the clan alliances."